Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to explore the value of dealing with just one arising at a time. So it's been said that a problem is like a pool of muddy water. The more you stir it around, the cloudier it gets. You know, and there's a lot of truth to that.

Now how many times have you tossed and turned at night, ruminating about a difficulty in your life only to wake up the next day, feeling more agitated, tired and stressed? How many times have you had, you know, a difficult conversation with someone in a short conversation, but only to just replay that over and over again, for days, weeks or months causing anxiety and distress? And how many times have you not been fully present at a party or at the dinner table or at work because just something is just mentally weighing you down as you replay the problem again and again? When it comes to our problems, most of the time when we are being troubled by our problems, we don't actually have any challenge in front of us in that given moment. It's all going on in our mind. You know, the argument that happened last week, but we're still playing it over and over, or we're sitting in a, actually a nice, comfortable, safe place. Everything's fine, but we're worrying about all the things that might go wrong next week, next year, or in 10 years. So we tend to, you know, stir the mind again and again, by going into what happened in the past, what might happen in the future.

But from the vantage point of mindfulness, the only thing we ever really have to deal with is what's arising right now in this moment. The rest we just leave it alone. Really, you only have to deal with the conflict if it's happening right now. You only have to deal with the doubt, the fear, the rejection that's happening right now. You only have to deal with a challenge or a difficult emotion, if there's something happening, right now.

Something to be done about it right now. Sometimes we forget, but it pays to remember, that we only have to deal with one arising at a time. Now, of course the mind might think, you know, but I have to think about all of this over and over again. I have to solve it. I have to plan for it.

I have to get it figured out. Now yes, there is a truth to the fact that there may be a small amount of time that would be really useful to sit down and constructively think through something. You know, plan next steps. But the majority of the time, it's really not helpful just to keep tossing it all around in the mind. All that tends to do is give you more stress and suffering and muddy up the waters of the mind.

So today's invitation for practice is to simply remember that you only truly have to deal with one arising at a time and in-between, you can allow yourself some peace of mind. As always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And let's now settle in for today's meditation.